DISMANIBUS: “We Scream But We Like Cheesy Stuff As Well, Cheese is Good.” [Interview]

Before the first MetalRecusants organised gig at The Hole in the Wall, Colchester featuring Coronach, Dismanibus and headliners Praesepe, Hayls interviewed Dismanibus before their brilliant gig. The band were naturally funny and seemed to have a great relationship with one another.

Dave recently reviewed their debut album The Old Lie: “a refreshing offering to the death metal genera. The group has a powerful sound which should only get better when their writing evolves to match the maturity of their music. Keep an eye on this band…” Check out the rest of this review here.

Hayls: Firstly, thank you so much for talking to me.

Dismanibus: It’s alright.

Hayls: Do you think playing localised free gigs has helped raise your profile as a band?

Pete Fitzgerald (Guitar): Yes.

Will Price (Bass/Backing Vocals): Not as much as playing Wembley but it’s alright.

(Laugh)

Will: More people have heard of us if we haven’t had gigged locally or anyway, somewhere local to somewhere else. I should shut up.

Hayls: It might be Wembley one day.

Joshua Moreton (Drums): What the Hole in the Wall? Could be.

Pete: What time paradox.

Hayls: Or you could sneak in when it’s closed and play Wembley.

Josh: We do that anyway. Get a projector out.

Pete: Tuesday Afternoon Death Metal.

Josh: It makes us feel better about ourselves.

Hayls: What about your connection the University of Essex Metal Society, has that helped with the fan base?

Will: It was certainly good for the Uni gig last week

Josh: When we played The End (end of year free party on the University campus) we got quite a few new fans, a couple of Facebook likes which was the win.

Pete: That’s what matters.

Josh: We couldn’t have done that without the metal society and Dom’s (MetalRecusants editor) amazing co-ordination

Pete: Battling against the SU.

Dom: I’m just the cameraman.

Pete: He’s done well for himself.

Josh: Moving up in the world.

Dom: I’m going to Hollywood soon.

Hayls: Speaking of The End, it’s seen as a drunken event that’s mostly populated with mainstream music bands. How was that experience?

Will: I think people liked the novelty of something ridiculous

Pete: Which is what we are?

Will: I think if it was ridiculous that was dub-step, people that drunk were going to love it.

Pete: It was a lot better than we expected, we were expecting to get banned or possibly have things thrown at us.

Josh: It was a nice surprise because a lot of metal fans were probably there, but were probably expecting more mainstream music so when we started playing they went ‘oh!’ We were surprised by the 50 people up front acting like lunatics, expressing themselves.

Will: I think we had a few people who were going into ironically moshed, then realised ‘oh this is actually kind of fun.’

Josh: I’m going to take the piss, oh I’m enjoying myself.

Will: So that was cool.

Simon Reeves (Guitar): It’s good because metal isn’t really catered for at the Uni.

Hayls: I mean the two Metal Meltdowns (Essex University’s critically acclaimed metal club nights) were popular so…

Will: But we only had two approved at the Uni so we need more, there should be more! They even made the argument about judging by the “metal related sales we don’t think there’s a demand”, but they only approve two events what do you expect.

Josh: Oooh controversial.

Pete: Politics.

Dom: I’m going to send this to the SU

Hayls: Well, hopefully you can have more events like The End that are a bit more sober.

Pete: No.

Josh: Why do you think they liked us in the first place?!

Will: Don’t take the beer away for them.

Josh: Dull their senses so we can sound better.

Hayls: Well, that explains the choice of venue, lots of alcohol on offer.

Will: Plus this interview underneath the picturesque Essex sky

Dom: I can see all gray.

Will: It’s vibrant.

Josh: It sums up our lives.

Will: I think this is a good place to end the interview.

Hayls: You’re going to play some songs from your debut album (The Old Lie), how do you think they’re going to go down?

Josh: Less well than the new songs we’ve got.

Will: He wasn’t on the new album.

Josh: I play with apathy.

Pete: I think they’re going to go down brilliantly. Better than the ones Josh played on.

Hayls: Of course the album will be on sale tonight, how are you sales to go?

Will: No idea.

Josh: We haven’t even played yet.

Pete: 2.

Simon: 5.

Pete: Boom! It’s going up all the time.

Will: I think they might be stolen when we’re doing the interview, but the problem is if we play again we’ll be playing to people who have already bought the album so that’s why we have to play elsewhere, but that’s effort.

At this point it started raining so we moved inside

Hayls: The album has been on sale on amazon, what have the sales been like?

Will: I have no idea and we’ll probably find out in two months’ time when they get back to us, you can pay for a thing when you find out for how much you’re selling but I don’t want to spend my money.

At this point Coronach started their drum soundcheck

Hayls: As an unsigned band presuming you all have jobs outside of it, recording an album must be difficult with restrictions on time and money, how did you guys get around it?

Simon: It took as two years.

Hayls: Wow.

Will: And we kinda took the piss with the guy running the studio at times.

Pete: But it ended in a win.

Simon: We were very pushy.

Pete: Assertive.

Simon: Argumentative.

Hayls: Your band name translates to the “Spirit of the Dead” and is found on Roman tombstones, is that where you got the name from?

Will: That is where we got the name from.

Pete: I think it’s just a parody of Dis man is a bus.

Hayls: But your name has been mistake for Dis man is a bus before has it not?

Pete: That is correct.

Will: This is man is a bus.

Simon: Dolmanibus is the worst one.

Will: Dogmasibus, saw that one before. Apparently Dogmasibus is one that got the crowd going before.

Josh: I love those guys.

Hayls: What can we expect from the album?

Pete: Music.

Josh: Not me.

Pete: So it’s excellent.

Josh: But it is pretty tight.

Simon: Yeah it’s definitely tight.

Josh: There’s a good variety of music, accessible songs and longer more progressive songs.

Will: A lot of it just happens by accident.

Hayls: So what genre are you?

Simon: I guess you could say we’re a melodic death metal band.

Josh: We scream but we like cheesy stuff as well, cheese is good.

Will: You can hear a bit of Oppenheimer too

Simon: And a bit of half time.

Josh: Nah, no one likes breakdowns.

Hayls: Obviously, Josh is a new addition to the band, when did you bring him on board and why?

Will: Because he can hit drums and fast

Josh: Yeah, why?

Simon: He just turned up one day and never left.

Josh: I thought I was joining a folk band.

Will: There’s not really much place for blast beats in folk bands.

Pete: Someone should make it.

Hayls: Maybe on your next album.

Simon: Well our previous drummer who was at the Uni, he left and Josh quit his last band, so we thought we’d take him home.

Will: He looked sad.

Josh: I was pretty desperate.

Hayls: It seemed to work out well for you guys. This is also the first MetalRecusants organised gig, how does it feel to be part of that.

Will: I’m actually swelling with pride.

At this point Simon’s phone goes off

Josh: This is the level of professionalism we see.

Simon: (on phone): I’m doing an interview for MetalRecusants.

At this point the band takes turns to speak to the person on the phone and sing along to the drum soundcheck of Iron Maiden’s ‘Run to the Hills.’

Josh: I love how we all joined in on that.

Will: That was amazing.

Simon: That was our old bassist.

Will: It feels good to be involved, it’s a good site and we’re proud to be part of the event, we wish them all the best.

Josh: We definitely want to be a part of the staple Metal Soc bands. We all went to the uni apart from him [points at vocalist Ben Hargreaves]

Pete: He went to the institute though (Colchester Institute).

Josh: The Uni is our home base effectively.

Will: It’s like the house of death. If anyone’s got a death party going on we’d like to play it.

At this point the drum soundcheck gets louder and the band all start head banging in unison

Hayls: Obviously as a band releasing an album must have been a dream of yours. How has the reality shaped up to the dream?

Will: I liked having 1000 CDs dropped off at work by an angry Scotsman. That fulfilled the dream for me.

Pete: It’s cool being able to find our album on Spotify and to buy online.

Josh: I feel like we’re a real band now.

Hayls: So you weren’t before but feel like now you’ve got an album out?

Josh: Now I’ve got something to show to my mum.

Pete: That the seal of approval.

Simon: It makes gigging worthwhile. We’ve been gigging for two or three years and people have always been asking us for albums and now we can say yes.

Will: Give me money.

Pete: We’ll take your Stirling!

Hayls: What does the future hold for you guys?

Will: I have no idea.

Pete: More gigs.

Will: More gigs, okay cool.

Josh: We’ve already got a few new songs written and they’re really good. We’ve definitely grown and we’re more cohesive as a unit and we’re definitely evolving.

Will: The next album is going to have a higher push on the epic scale.

I am a recent graduate from the University of Essex in Colchester where by the luck of Odin I met the editor, Dom. I first got into metal when I was 13 and now I am 22 and own an uncountable amount of band T-shirts. I also regularly attend gigs (local and in neighbouring areas) as well as festivals. My musical taste is varied; I like nu metal (my first love), thrash, black, death, doom, folk, sludge (my favourite genre), symphonic and many more of the multiple genres that metal has to offer, I even like some metalcore (I know it's a dirty word within some metal circles but some of it is outstanding). One of my most memorable metal moments was meeting Grand Magus at the Bloodstock signing tent and having the whole tent to myself, spending a few minutes talking to them.

The chemistry between us all works really well too - we have loads of ideas - some work some don't but we have created a space where we can try out these ideas which is very exciting! There is a lot of creative freedom among us!